Can You Run MAC OS on a vista?

[Yooper]

Apple says it is not possible, OS X will only run on an Apple-manufactured machine but I'm sure some tech person has made it happen. Not being that techie person (but after consulting my friend who IS a rocket scientist) he says in the long run if you want to run a Mac OS it would be cheaper to get a new iMac than try to make OS X run on a windoze machine.

 

[iklier]

Some people have gotten Mac OS 10.4(Tiger) and the current beta of 10.5(Leopard) running on non-Apple hardware, but I haven't heard or anyone running it off an external hard drive.

 

[Kins123]

To be honest I would say don't even try it. You will be sure to encounter lots of obstacles and would just be a headache.

If you still want to try there are lots of articles about it on Google, including:

http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/PearPC.html

 

[tornZorak]

Good Question. Fundamentally you would assume that since the new Mac's are intel based you should be able to run Mac OS on any intel machine. However unlike Windows which has to support everything type and combination of hardware out there, the Mac only has to support the hardware present in the release Mac hardware.

So the real issue is lack of drivers to support the hardware in the non Mac machines. What you will find is yes you can (with alot of work) get OSX installed on a non-Apple machine. However many wireless cards won't work, you won't get graphics drivers that allow important OSX components to run (Quartz, etc), etc. The result is your experience in OSX will be suboptimal and many applications won't run properly or at all.

Really, I know spending money can be hard, however the only real effective way to run OSX is to buy some type of Mac. The only other way is to custom pick hardware that is compatible with Mac hardware to effectively build a gray box Mac. This is not easy to do - however there are folks out there that have gotten this to work.

Sorry. Unless your seriously into hacking computer software and know hardware buy a Mac.

P.S. - we won't mention that it's against the license for OSX to install on non-Apple hardware.

 

[sheep]

I've discussed this situations with peeps more familiar with both computers and the short answer is no you can't.
If you are unhappy with the Vista® experience, look into various Linux distros. There is a thread running here currently on linux. It is UNIX based like Mac OSX and is secure and depending on the distro you get, is good as far as drivers are concerned. I was thinking of trying Ubuntu (for the Mac) but I really don't have time ...and...every release of OSX on my machine has been faster than the one it preceeded. 10.5 is rumoured to have zfs file system which is mainenance free. but I digress.....

 

[bbya2064]

Depends on the computer;
some computers (mostly business machines) have drivers for mac created by a user base at the OSX86 website.

But I don't reccomend it as the overall experience is like running 10.4 on my powerbook g3 wallstreet (300 with 256 ram).

 

[tornZorak]

It is possible - I did it.
There's a thread about it here from months back (possibly last year) with screen shots.

Did you get core graphics and quartz extreme running fully? This is what usually trips folks up. Without that many applications don't run.

 

[Lucas07]

Thing you have to remember with running Mac OS on an intel PC (X86) is the drivers and the compatibility of everything. The thing with bootcamp is that it's official and supported by apple, so everything is in a way "covered".
I mean, for crying out loud, Vista isn't even compatible with everything- and that's from mircrosoft that's supposed to run on your hardware. so that sucks. It's pretty much like the same thing if you plan to run Mac OS X.

You get an installer and all that which includes everything you need to make it run smoothly- in my experience, even better than any windows PC I've ever used.

Don't expect to get an experience to par with an actual apple running os x though. But it is possible.

 

[trawler69]

^ Actually he didn't say anywhere that OS x doesn't run on every Intel based computer.

He also didn't Windows bash, he made valid observations one of them being that to get the best experience from OS X on a PC then bootcamp is the way to go in the same way that it is to get Vista or whatever to run on the Mac.

The only "bash" was the mention of vista incompatibility with some of their own progs. From what I have read here and else where that is not an invalid argument.

 

[sheep]

So what you're actually saying is that OS X doesn't run on every Intel based computer?

If Apple's OS doesn't run on every Intel based computer (or run well) why isn't Apple a big baddie like Microsoft then?

If you're going to be fair you have to exact the same standards from Apple as you do from Microsoft - Apple OS X should run on every Intel computer and not just on Apple's own Intel Macs. Even the many flavours of Linux can run on just about every Intel based computer.

I really get sick of this constant Windows bashing and Apple is great hypocrisy. Yet again there are several threads running with people sniping at Microsoft and praising Apple when Apple is as much a monopoly in it's own way as Microsoft is and Apple products are far more proprietary than Microsoft's.

Noelie, go read it again. You are reading something that isn't there. Now if VMware came out with a fast emulator to run OSX on a pc like they have for running xp on a Mac, they would make a fortune IMHO
....and I'm not noelie bashing

 

[Lucas07]

There you go noelie. Wasn't talking about processors there... So yeah we all get it now

 

[winslayer]

So what you're actually saying is that OS X doesn't run on every Intel based computer?

If Apple's OS doesn't run on every Intel based computer (or run well) why isn't Apple a big baddie like Microsoft then?

If you're going to be fair you have to exact the same standards from Apple as you do from Microsoft - Apple OS X should run on every Intel computer and not just on Apple's own Intel Macs. Even the many flavours of Linux can run on just about every Intel based computer.

I really get sick of this constant Windows bashing and Apple is great hypocrisy. Yet again there are several threads running with people sniping at Microsoft and praising Apple when Apple is as much a monopoly in it's own way as Microsoft is and Apple products are far more proprietary than Microsoft's.

Mac OS X indeed does not run on every Intel based computer. OS X for Intel, as the base installer, won't install on an Intel chip that doesn't have support for SSE3. Many people have hacked away at files and now you can install the release on SSE2 and AMD processors so this opens up the possibility of installing it on more processors. Beyond that, if you took the plain-jane OS X install disc that you buy from Apple and pop it in your drive to boot from, you are going to get a surprise in that it won't even boot the installer on a non-Apple branded computer. This is how it was originally created.

Many people get confused and think that Apple is going head to head with Microsoft. This is not the case. Apple is not a software company in and of it's own. They produce software yes, but the software that Apple makes is mostly made to sell their own hardware. Mac OS X is made to sell Macs, iTunes is designed to sell iPods, etc. If anything, Apple is competing with proprietary hardware manufacturers like Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer and so on. The difference with Apple is that they design the Operating System that their computers run on instead of relying on Windows.

Apple (thus far) doesn't want OS X to install on every single computer out there. Apple supports their own hardware. So when you install OS X, you are going to get drivers specifically written for OS X hardware. This is different from Windows in that Windows has drivers for all different kinds of hardware. To be honest, Apple has it easier than Microsoft. Apple just has a base hardware set they have to support, and Microsoft has to support millions upon millions of different hardware configurations. Configurations that they don't even know they are supporting. And this is one of the major reasons why OS X is much more stable, secure, and reliable than Windows.

And finally, I would just like to point out that it is more illegal to install OS X on a non-branded Apple computer than it is to see naked pics of Daniel Radcliffe playing with horses. From the Software License Agreement:

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.

In case you were wondering, an Apple-labeled computer is one that you buy from Apple.

 

[_AJ_]

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.

In case you were wondering, an Apple-labeled computer is one that you buy from Apple.

I would say that would be challengeable in court in the same way that you are allowed to mod a game console to play games and that you are allowed to do whatever you like with cd music (ie put on MP3 player) i dont think that they should be allowed to do that if you buy the software and can get it to run on your pc that SHOULD be legal that it isn't is total BS

 

[winslayer]

I would say that would be challengeable in court in the same way that you are allowed to mod a game console to play games and that you are allowed to do whatever you like with cd music (ie put on MP3 player) i dont think that they should be allowed to do that if you buy the software and can get it to run on your pc that SHOULD be legal that it isn't is total BS

Oh dear, you think modding a game console is legal? I don't really want to drift far on this subject because it will be going far far off topic, but you should study up on your DMCA rules and regs, because it has set up some rather nice penalities for modding. You are allowed to make backups of software that you own in case something happens to the original, but this is where you're going to find your rights end. This is also the case with music CD's (which, btw, you license music, you don't actually own the music you purchase, you are buying a license to be able to listen to it). And as such, there actually are limitation to what you can do with the music you have licensed.

Just so you know, not that I think this would ever actually happen to you, but if you have installed Mac OS X on a non-branded Apple computer and the feds come for you and find this computer, and for some really strange reason Apple decided to pursue legal action... you wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court.

 

[_AJ_]

Oh dear, you think modding a game console is legal? I don't really want to drift far on this subject because it will be going far far off topic, but you should study up on your DMCA rules and regs, because it has set up some rather nice penalities for modding. You are allowed to make backups of software that you own in case something happens to the original, but this is where you're going to find your rights end. This is also the case with music CD's (which, btw, you license music, you don't actually own the music you purchase, you are buying a license to be able to listen to it). And as such, there actually are limitation to what you can do with the music you have licensed.

Just so you know, not that I think this would ever actually happen to you, but if you have installed Mac OS X on a non-branded Apple computer and the feds come for you and find this computer, and for some really strange reason Apple decided to pursue legal action... you wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court.

Here in Australia It IS legal to mod a games console to play game only here it is usually done to play games from other regions like the US and Japan

so like i said maybe not in the US but in other countries Especially the EU

oh and just because its illegal there dosen't mean that it is right

 

[winslayer]

Here in Australia It IS legal to mod a games console to play game only here it is usually done to play games from other regions like the US and Japan

so like i said maybe not in the US but in other countries Especially the EU

oh and just because its illegal there dosen't mean that it is right

Ah, yes I should have taken into account that you may not be in the US. Sorry about that. I do realize there is the rest of the world out there, sometimes I just forget the WWW is accessable to everyone.

And I agree with your last statement. I'm not saying I agree with all the laws of the land....I'm not saying I've never installed OS X on a Dell...I'm not saying I don't actually own (and love) a modded XBox and use the Xbox Media Center on it...I'm not saying I don't circumvent the RIAA/MPAA like crazy with torrents.

I'm sorry if I came off sounding a bit... like a bitchy Madonna earlier.

It's been a long day.